Take a look at the Current Festivals section in the right-hand column of this web page. As I write this, on Friday, October 20, I've got links there to 14 film festivals currently running or coming up soon (three of them will close this weekend). I thought I'd tell you a bit about the ones … Continue reading Upcoming Festivals: Silents, Docs, and a Hold in the Head
Category: Documentaries
Human Flow: The big and small of the refuge crisis
A Documentary Directed by Ai Weiwei If you keep up with international news to any serious degree, very few of the facts in this haunting documentary will surprise you (although some just might). But director Ai Weiwei isn't really trying to make you know more. He wants to make you feel more. But I'll start … Continue reading Human Flow: The big and small of the refuge crisis
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: The Force, The Player, & A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Here are three other movies I've seen. A The Force (2017), California Theater (Berkeley) No, this not a Star Wars movie, but a cinema verite documentary about the Oakland Police Department, shot over a period of two years. There's no narration, and if anything was staged for the movie cameras - even an interview - I … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: The Force, The Player, & A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Dolores: Heroine for the farmworkers
A Documentary Directed by Peter Bratt I grew up boycotting grapes. My family supported Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union. But I never knew about Dolores Huerta until I heard about this documentary. Now I feel I know her (of course, I don't). Huerta was a part of the union from the start. … Continue reading Dolores: Heroine for the farmworkers
Whose Streets: Ferguson and America
A- Documentary Directed by Sabaah Folayan & Damon Davis The police murder of Michael Brown rocked the town of Ferguson, Missouri - and the nation. This incendiary and totally-biased documentary does more than tell you the story. It puts you on the ground with the people that marched, protested, and rioted as their city became … Continue reading Whose Streets: Ferguson and America
Unhappy marriages: Thursday night at the Jewish Film Festival
Thursday night, I caught two movies at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. One was very good. One was very bad. No filmmakers attended their films at the Albany Twin that night. That's normal after the Festival moves from San Francisco to the East Bay. A- Personal Affairs This surprisingly sad comedy looks at a quietly dysfunctional … Continue reading Unhappy marriages: Thursday night at the Jewish Film Festival
An Inconvenient Sequel about fixing the problem
A documentary Directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shank The film starts with glaciers melting, while we hear commentators from Fox News and similar outlets trashing Al Gore as an alarmist and a liar. We hear the lies, while we see the truth. Al Gore's 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, was strong on bad news, … Continue reading An Inconvenient Sequel about fixing the problem
Survivor documentaries: Sunday at the Jewish Film Fest
Attending the SanFrancisco Jewish Film Festival in the East Bay is an entirely different social experience than going to any other festival...at least it is for me. When I go to most festivals, I socialize with other cinephiles - people I've come to know and befriend because we all love cinema. But at the Jewish … Continue reading Survivor documentaries: Sunday at the Jewish Film Fest
I’m Okay at the Jewish Film Fest in Albany
As the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival moves to the East Bay, it becomes much more convenient for me. The Albany Twin theater is less than a mile from my home. Friday afternoon, my wife and I attended our first Jewish Film Festival event in walking distance, a screening of the German documentary, I'm Okay. … Continue reading I’m Okay at the Jewish Film Fest in Albany
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Dunkirk, Night Nurse, The End of the Ottoman Empire, & All the President’s Men
A Dunkirk (2017), AMC Metreon IMAX You've probably already read wonderful things about the big, new war film, and you probably already know something about the famous evacuation. So I'll just focus on story construction. The film cuts back and forth between three stories. One is about a soldier trying desperately to get off the beach. … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Dunkirk, Night Nurse, The End of the Ottoman Empire, & All the President’s Men
Bayflicks 